Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse

Country

Division

Population

40,733

Whitehorse (population 40,733 as of the 2011 Census) is the capital and largest city of Yukon, Canada and the largest city in northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in Alaska. The city was named after the White Horse Rapids for their resemblance to the mane of a white horse, near Miles Canyon, before the river was dammed. Because of the city's location in the Whitehorse valley, the climate is milder than other comparable northern communities. At this latitude winter days are short and summer days have 20 hours of daylight.

Whitehorse is located at kilometre 1,425 (Historic Mile 918) of the Trans-Canada Highway and is framed by three nearby mountains: Grey Mountain to the east, Haeckel Hill to the northwest and Golden Horn Mountain to the south. The rapids which were the namesake of the city have disappeared under Schwatka Lake, formed by the construction of a hydroelectricity dam in 1958. Whitehorse is currently the 79th largest city in Canada by area. The city limits present a near rectangular shape orientated in a NW-SE direction.

Like most of Yukon, Whitehorse has a dry subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dfc). However, because of the city's location in the Whitehorse valley, the climate is milder than other comparable northern communities such as Yellowknife. With an average annual temperature of −0.1 °C (31.8 °F) Whitehorse is the warmest place in the Yukon. This is the airport temperature. The Whitehorse Riverdale weather station situated at a lower elevation than the airport is even warmer at 0.2 °C (32.4 °F). At this latitude winter days are short and summer days have just over 19 hours of daylight. Whitehorse experiences an annual temperature average with daily highs of 20.5 °C (68.9 °F) in July and average daily lows of −22 °C (−8 °F) in January. The highest temperature ever recorded in Whitehorse was 35.6 °C (96 °F) on 14 June 1969. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −56.1 °C (−69 °F) on 21 January 1906. Whitehorse has little precipitation with an average annual snowfall of 145 cm (57.09 in) and 163 mm (6.4 in) of rainfall.

According to Meteorological Service of Canada, Whitehorse has the distinction of being Canada's driest city, mainly because it lies in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains.

Whitehorse is in the Cordilleran climate region, the Complex Soils of Mountain Areas soil region, the Cordilleran vegetation region, and the Boreal Cordillera ecozone.